


Their First Encounter

by dreamingofthenight



Category: Hunger Games Series - All Media Types, Hunger Games Trilogy - Suzanne Collins
Genre: F/M, First Meetings, Gen, My First Work in This Fandom
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-03-27
Updated: 2020-03-27
Packaged: 2021-02-28 23:21:13
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 627
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23341621
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/dreamingofthenight/pseuds/dreamingofthenight
Summary: This is just a short piece of work about Katniss and Gale's first meeting. It's not a full story and I probably won't ever expand on this work but I am planning to write more about Katniss and Gale. I hope you enjoy my first work and please feel free to leave any corrections (constructive criticism is welcome)!
Relationships: Katniss Everdeen/Gale Hawthorne
Kudos: 6





	Their First Encounter

**Author's Note:**

> All the characters and main idea belong to Suzanna Collins!

A crunch of the dry leaves caught his attention. He backed up behind a tree, drawing his knife from his belt but he knew he would never be able to bring himself to use it. Not against a human anyway. There was a difference between game, a source of food and money, and a living human. They were probably scared for their lives in the woods, he had been the first time. But if it was a peacekeeper. That was a whole different matter. Standing as still as was possible he was almost invisible in the thick woods but somehow the child still found him. She was terrified, and a small squeal gave it away. Everything about her was small; from her height which was almost half of his to her too-big jacket hanging loose on her tiny body. She was starving as were half the people in the Seam but what was she doing out here.

Then, it came to him, why she seemed so familiar. She was out here because that was her only way to survive, she was alone like him. The oldest child in a broken family. The oldest child taking on the role of father. He had met her once before - at the ceremony where they both claimed the small sum of money after their fathers died in a mining accident. He remembered it as the day he became ‘dad’ to his younger siblings, to Rory, Vicky and the unborn baby Posy. She had never met her real father.

A frail cough brought his attention back to the child. There was only one thing he could do, he would help her. ‘Come with me, it’s not safe here. There’s a lynx somewhere nearby.’ She was obviously startled at his reply but they had to keep moving. Together they were slower than he would like to have been and the lynx he was running from was sure to catch them up. ‘Can you run?’ he asked the girl.  
‘Yes, I’m small, not stupid.’  
‘I never said you were.’ And just like that, they carried on in silence. However slow she was, he couldn’t deny she was brave. Bracing the woods took an awful lot of courage.  
There it was - the lynx. It’s spotted fur was no match for his eye. As it started to pounce, he grabbed the girl’s arm and pulled her along. ‘Run!’ he shouted at her, and she did. They both ran - through the trees, across a glade and he even jumped over a stream. But that was where she stopped. Hopefully, the wild cat had lost them.  
‘Come on, jump.’  
‘I c-can’t.’  
‘Sure you can, just jump across it.’ He knew it was no use. She wasn’t going to do it however hard he tried to convince her. As long as the lynx didn’t catch up to them then they were safe. Slowly, he rolled up his trousers and waded through the stream and joined her on the other side. 

‘Follow me. I know a place we can rest.’ This was his place and he didn’t really know why he was showing her but he was.  
They reached the rocks where he usually ate and he sat down and shuffled over, patting the space he left next to him. She sat obediently.  
‘Ok, I get it. I don’t know you, you don’t know me but you need to talk. I’m Gale. What’s your name?’ She whispered something barely audible over the rushing stream on the other side of the hill. ‘You’re going to have to speak up, Catnip.’  
‘Katniss.’ This time she spoke a little louder, a little bolder.  
‘I prefer Catnip.’ He handed her a chunk of bread he had in his pocket and they both eat silently.


End file.
